A series of vibrations she’d never felt before now.
She looked to her window to find it vibrating, the light from Saturn pouring through into her cell.
“What on Earth…” Her face fell when she saw what was happening to the large planet.
The wreckage from Alpha seemed to be drifting toward it. The rings around the planet slowly split out into three, separate entities. Each of them started to revolve around the planet, pushing pieces of the ship away.
“My God, it’s fantastic,” Wool whispered to herself.
CLANG.
Wool yelped and turned around to see the main door to N-Carcerate slid open. “Who’s there?”
Tripp and Bonnie walked in, alone. Wool instantly spotted their strange behavior.
“Oh, thank God,” Wool cried for joy, “You made it.”
“Yes, we did,” Tripp said, slowly. “Listen, Wool—”
“—Where are the others?”
“—No time for that right now,” Bonnie said, “We’re not alone.”
“Look, you gotta watch out for Tor. He’s a traitor,” Wool shook her ankle. “Can you release me, please?”
Tor and Baldron Kept hidden behind the door to N-Carcerate, eavesdropping on the information they were sure Wool would spill.
“I knew it,” Tor said, cocking his firearm. “She’s told them about us.”
“Why are we listening-in?” Baldron sniffed and wiped his eye. “Let’s stop toying with them and kill them, already.”
Tor squinted at Baldron’s brow.
“What is it?”
“Your eyes are bleeding,” Tor said, “Are you wearing contacts?”
“No, I’m twenty-twenty, I don’t wear contacts,” Baldron said, taken aback by the blob of pink blood on his finger. “My face feels really warm.”
“Ugh, keep your distance,” Tor said, “I don’t want to catch space flu.”
“I have not got space flu!” Baldron protested and nudged Tor aside. “Enough. Let’s execute these infidels and get on with our mission.”
“Right, everyone on your knees. Now,” Baldron aimed his firearm at Tripp and Bonnie.
“Wait!” Tripp said, buying some time. “Have you seen Saturn, lately?”
“No, and I don’t care.”
“Something is happening, look,” Tripp nodded at the large window to his left.
Baldron and Tor looked to their right at the window. Their jaws dropped in wonder. “Oh, wow…”
Saturn’s rings were in full rotation. The planet seemed to bulge like a beating heart as the rings revolved around at speed. The inertia coming from the spectacle rocked Opera Beta.
“When we boarded Alpha, we were told something was going to happen,” Tripp explained.
“The mission isn’t over,” Bonnie added, “It’s only just begun.”
“What is that?” Tor pointed at Saturn and grew anxious. “Why are the rings doing that?”
“I don’t know,” Tripp spat, doing his best to make his assailants change their minds about executing them. “But we need to stick around to find out.”
“Correction, American,” Tor snapped, “We, my comrade and I, need to stick around to find out. Not you.”
Bonnie spotted something coming from the corridor. She clenched her fists behind her head and slowly rose to her feet. “Are you going to sabotage what could be the greatest discovery of the universe by killing us?”
“Yes,” Tor said without a hint of remorse. He swung his gun at her face. “I am going to blast your pretty little head off.”
“It’s ironic you said that,” Bonnie smirked, evilly.
Tor didn’t get the joke. “How is what I just said ironic—”
BLAM.
A bullet rocketed past his head from behind, scraping a few strands of his hair from the side of his face. Tor jumped forward and slid across the floor, releasing his weapon.
Tripp wasted no time in collecting the gun and pointing it at Tor.
Jaycee stormed forward and swung his K-SPARK gun at Baldron. The terrified Russian reached into his inner-suit and pulled out a red dumb bomb.
“No, no, no,” Baldron threatened to yank the pin away from the bomb. He sidestepped toward the exit to the chamber. “You want us all to die?”
“No,” Jaycee fumed, ready to kill the man, “Just you.”
“What was that you said to me, Jaycee? Never point your gun at the people you work with?”
“You don’t work with us.”
“Hypocrite.” Baldron tugged on the chain, almost releasing it.
“Jesus,” Tripp said, keeping the Rez-9 pointed at Tor’s head. “Jaycee, don’t exacerbate the situation. Stand down.”
Jaycee lowered the gun, angry with himself. “Fine.”
“You like surrendering, don’t you, American? Your history is full of failed war stories,” Baldron chuckled to himself. “Tor, are you coming?”
“I would,” he said, looking at the barrel of his own gun pointing at him from Tripp’s hand. “But, uh, he’s got my gun.”
“Give my comrade his weapon back, Mr Healy,” Baldron tugged at the pin on the dumb bomb. “If I pull the pin, there’s no going back. We will all get a first row view of whatever is happening out there.”
“You wouldn’t blow us up,” Tripp threw the gun at Tor, who caught it clumsily in his hands. “There’s too much at stake.”
“On the contrary, American scum,” Baldron wrenched the pin away from the grenade, setting off its sixty second timer. “I just did.”
“Oh, God,” everyone screamed, “No!”
“Tor, run!” Baldron darted out of the chamber. Tor jumped after him.
“No, wait!” Jaycee turned around and chased after them. Tripp fired two rounds in their direction and missed.
Tor and Baldron jumped through the door and closed it shut.
“Goodbye, scumbags,” Baldron tossed the dumb bomb through the gap in the door and slammed it shut.
The grenade bounced off Jaycee’s shoulder and rolled across the ground.
Tripp, Bonnie and Wool stepped back as the digital readout counted down from forty seconds…
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Bonnie pushed herself to the floor in a frantic scramble to grab the dumb bomb as it rolled toward the cells.
She opened her hand and grabbed the device in her hand. “Thirty-five seconds! What do we do?”
“We can’t shut it off,” Wool cried out loud and closed her eyes.
“Stand back,” Jaycee lifted his K-SPARK shot gun and aimed it at the door. “Keep your heads down.”
BLAMMM!
He fire a bullet into the door, blasting it off its hinges, triggering Opera Beta’s internal alarm. He booted the remains of the door away. “Everyone out.”
“I’m stuck,” Wool lifted her shackled ankle. “They have the key. I can’t move.”
“Wool,” Bonnie looked at the timer on the grenade. “Thirty seconds…”
Tor and Baldron rang along the gantry at speed, heading toward Botanix.
“What did you do that for?” Tor asked. “The bomb will blow a hole in the side of the ship.
“No,” Baldron ran ahead of Tor. “N-Carcerate will contain the explosion. We did it. We won. A unanimous Stateside suicide pact.”
As the pair’s footsteps clanged along the corridor ground, their feet became lighter. Eventually, their toes drifted away from the floor.
The gravity subsided, sending them into a free-float in the middle of the corridor.
“What’s happening?”
“Someone’s hit the gravity switch!” Baldron gasped, and looked at Botanix.
The door slid open, releasing Jelly. She kicked her hind legs off the frame and propelled forward, claws outstretched.
“Toooorrrr…” she shrieked, flying towards him.